


Nagumo Murders

by Sugarino



Category: World War Z - Max Brooks
Genre: Gen, Japan, Pre-Zombie Apocalypse, Zombie, Zombie Apocalypse, after action report, report
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:54:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21781780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sugarino/pseuds/Sugarino
Summary: Another short story set in Japan before the outbreak.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	Nagumo Murders

**Author's Note:**

> Another one written by gf.

**Tokyo, Kanto Province, Japan**

**I sit down at Toshi Nobuyuki's desk in Tokyo's police headquarters. The detective is just a few weeks away from retiring after 35 years in law enforcement. His back wall is riddled with awards, plaques, and certificates. The centerpiece is a red and white imperial chrysanthemum flower. It is better known as the civilian award for honorable service during World War Z. Toshi is one of 40 still living recipients in Japan.**

I was working the night the Nagumo Murders happened. It was around 3 in the morning when the call came in for a welfare check. The woman, Misses Nagumo, hadn't been seen at her tea club for several weeks. Her friends had called in and asked if we could check up on her. The car we sent out found flies and condensation on the windows, indicating a decaying body inside the house. Me and my partner Hiro were the first detectives on scene. The patrolman had already gotten in and… taken care of Mister Nagumo. 

**"What happened?"**

He kicked in the door and began his search. He found Misses Nagumo at the bottom of the stairs. Her body was badly decomposed, she had obviously been dead for a few weeks. Her body was covered in decaying bite marks, which was strange considering she didn't have any kind of pets. Upon further investigation, we discovered that these bite marks came from a human being. 

**"Why didn't she reanimate?"**

She had fallen face first down the stairs. The fall smashed her head in well enough to keep reanimation from occurring. 

**"Where was Mister Nagumo?"**

Mister Nagumo revealed himself in the upstairs hallway. After trying to attack the patrolman, he was shot 5 times. Four times in the chest, one in the leg, one in the head. Luckily the patrolman didn't get bitten. 

**"What were the early warning signs you noticed?"**

Mister Nagumo's body was one. His skin was pale and grey and his body was completely cold. These things were typical of corpses who had been dead for several days, not an hour. His blood was thick and black. 

We assumed mister Nagumo had murdered his wife. There was a blood trail leading from the upstairs bathroom to the top of the stairs. She had clearly tried to get away. There was a towel left discarded in the hall, clearly thrown. Her body was completely naked so we assumed she had been in the shower when he attacked. There were various signs of sickness found in their bedroom. There were dozens of pill bottles and medicine vials on the side table. The bed was still unmade since the last time Mister Nagumo used it. Misses Nagumo had purchased plenty of soup and fruit juice for her husband to subsist on. He had obviously been sick when he attacked her. But why attack her? There wasn't any apparent motivation for mister Nagumo to not only kill his wife but also to attack a police officer. It all started to make sense after Cape Town a few days later.

**"How?"**

The bodies were examined with new insight. Now misses Nagumo's bite wounds made sense. Mister Nagumo's illness, motivation, and fast decomposition made sense. Mister Nagumo must have been infected and then reanimated and attacked while his wife was caring for him. The autopsy didn’t show any bite wounds on Mister Nagumo, so he must have been among the many people who got infected by other means such as blood or organs. 

**"What happened after the Nagumo case was solved?"**

After the case was closed we started seeing other similar cases start to pop up. They were usually isolated murders like those in Sendai or larger incidents such as the string of missing persons reported in Niigata. Our department, like all police departments around Japan, started to get special training on what to do incase of an outbreak. The government began the educational initiative right after the outbreak in Osaka. It was the largest outbreak in pre panic Japan. And it signaled just what was around the corner for us all. If only my countless hours of investigative experience could have told me that.


End file.
